Twee foto's van Greet en Lien Lapp in Wanasari 1910

These are two photographs of Greet and Lien Lapp in Wanasari by Carolina Onnen from around 1910. You can see that the images are glued into a kind of scrapbook. The sepia tones and how they fade to grey and then the off-white of the photographic paper. I can imagine Onnen working with her equipment, setting up a bulky camera, maybe lugging it up a hill to capture a landscape. I wonder what she thought about photography? Was she interested in painting too? Photography was still pretty new then. I see the two girls, perhaps on holiday. I like the way the top image offers the eye a broad view, while the other draws you in, into the dark heart of the foliage. I wonder how this connects to Carolina Onnen's wider practice, what other kinds of images did she make? Did she also make paintings or drawings? It’s a fascinating glimpse into a time and place so different from our own.